An Out of Body Experience [Closed]

Zestari was a little unfocused, standing there as her mind began to probe this invisible wall that seemed to swallow up whatever she was feeling. And it took her a moment to realise Mona was speaking to her.

“Stay sane?” Zesty asked, her face set somewhat stoically, almost bored in expression whilst inside she balked a little. Zestari loved and laughed and celebrated and cried and gasped and adored being surprised and liked to be cheerful to those around her. It was who she was; it got her through the day. This… this was horrible.

It took a large part of her will to try and push all of that to the side for now and just focus on the current situation. Taking off after Mona, it took several metres of very ungraceful steps before Zestari fell into something resembling a gallop and quickly caught up to the unicorn in her body.

“Do you think something similar has happened to Kestrel? Do you think that’s why he was screaming? She said as they ran. “What sort of thing could do this?”

Mona would frown for a moment as she listened to Zestari's question, before tilting her head to look back at the new unicorn.

"I don't know. But we've got to get ourselves changed back, and I highly doubt Kestrel screaming like that right after this happened was a coincidence. Barely anything fazed him back in Harmony, after all..."

She mumbled, before finally nearing what she assumed must have been the location of the scream, the community center.

"Well, here we are...Mouth-firing isn't exactly my specialty, but if that scream turns out to have been a death cry, then I want to go in armed. Zes, pass me my gu-"

Before Mona could finish the request, she suddenly remembered that Zestari might have trouble using her new horn, and Mona's side-strap wasn't the easiest thing to reach with her mouth. It was more convinient to use telekinesis, after all.

"...Er...actually, I'll get it."

Carefully, Mona reached up and retrieved her gun from her companio-er, her holster, taking a moment to adjust the thing with her toungue, before moving quickly up to the community center doorway.

"Ffokay, 'ime to ge' ta work."

With her mumbling those words past the 10mm, Mona shoved open the door.

As Mona and Zestari arrived at the community center, they found that the door was wide open, and they heard another screech from inside, this time more clear than what they heard before.

"What in the hay is going on!?"

Coming to the door, they would find an...Unusual sight. There were three ponies in the community center, Jasmine Beat, Bakewell Tart, and Violet Star, as well as Kestrel. Violet and Bakewell seemed to be talking off to the side, however that’s not what was strange. What was strange, was Kestrel cowering on the floor.

His feathers standing up on end in clear panic, which was compounded by the look that was on his face.

While Jasmine was standing over him, a cold, hard, and displeased look on her face. If either of the mares were familiar with the usually-bubbly pegasus, they would find that her posture, how she stood there, was completely different than it usually was. It was more firm, more...Predatory.

And if that didn’t make them suspect that Kestrel and Jasmine had a similar experience to them, then what Jasmine said...Probably would.

Bakewell looked up at her own body with a frown, now that she was on ground level, the pony was noticing just how small Violet’s filly body was. As well as how unnervingly large an area Bake’s own beige muscular mass of equine commanded, both to Violet and in comparison to the other actual ponies in the room. Her mouth opened and closed wordlessly once or twice, combining with her glowing eyes in order to give the unicorn the appearance of a goggly-eyed fish before she managed to croak out a few words.

“Am I really that hu-“

All the buildup and effort that the filly had put into her line was hastily interrupted by Kestrel, er, Jasmine, er, The large bucking griffon in the room that looked like he was about to go insane. Bakewell had been around Jasmine in the past. Hay, she had been kidnapped and physically trapped in the same room as the lithpy thientitht before, not to mention the toilet dunkings and locker-stuffings back in the stable. This was different. All of the times in the past Bakewell had been fully capable of pushing others around to get her way, and even if she in no way intended to do so the possibility had been comforting. Now she felt weak and exposed. Violet’s body was small and, freaky vision problems aside, felt extremely pathetic to a mare who did not understand even the slightest thing about using magic. Were she Bakewell instead of Violet, the pastry chef would have probably tried to intervene and calm Jasmine down. In the current situation that was impossible. Violet was just too small, and the griffon body much too large and powerful.

Bakewell cowered slowly back towards the nearest wall. Her vision had involuntarily kicked into full on freak-mode once more, and she could see two figures through the tavern door. Though she couldn’t identify them as anything beyond two more masses of muscle and vessels.

Violet turned when Jasmine, that is, Jasmine in Kestrel’s body, started screeching, clearly taking this all slightly worse than the rest of them. Slightly. Kestrel tried to calm Jasmine down in his, or would that be her? Bah, in his own special way. Which was slightly less effective given his now rather high-pitched voice and lisp. Violet even giggled at his attempt to seem serious, although she quickly stifled it.

“Yeah,” added Violet “that seems to be the case. That or this is some strange dream, although I doubt it unless this is one of those weird dreams where you actually feel pain.” she rubbed the back of her head, which was still sore from her fall. “Magic is probably is the cause of this, some kind of magic at any rate. You can usually rely on magic to be the cause of weird things when weird things happen. I should know. The reaaaal question is, what’s the source of that magic...Anypony mess with any wonky magical artifacts recently? Shiny glowy coins? Severed Monkey Paws? Magic Wands? Talking Swords? Actually that’d be cool, I kind of want a talking sword now...” she trailed off as she cast her eyes down, muttering to herself as she tried think of a explanation for what was happening. She didn’t even notice Bakewell backing away in fear of the hysterical Jasmine, or the fact that two more mares had joined them, however the fact that Bakewell’s body didn’t have the most attuned senses may have contributed to that.

Jasmine set her paw down and tilted her head, leaning closer as she looked the pegasus up and down. Switched bodies?! How in all of Equestria could this be possible?! Jasmine held her talons infront of her face and tried to move them. She felt so strange in this form. Aside from being completely unaware of just how powerful she was, she also had no clue how to properly harness her new found dexterity. It would be nice being able manipulate things-like a unicorn!

Her focus returned to the orange pegasus before. Jasmine wore her glasses when no pony else was around and was very aware of how she looked. There was no mistaking her physics cutie-mark, green eyes, sleek figure or blonde mane. Jasmine heard the Beige pony explain the situation. Bakewell-or Violet?! Whoever it was would never lie to her- or at least her trusting nature led her to believe that. She responded to Violet while trotting over to her original body. "Not that I know of Bakie, I haven't studied magical matters lately... I WONDER IF WE COULD TRY TO USE SCIENCE TO FIX THIS!"

The thought of research began to raise the griffin's spirits as she began to circle the occupant of her former body. After completing a full circle she flopped down on her flank and let out a sigh. "So you said I was in your body Miss Me?" The gears in her head screeched before slowly cranking forward, as she tried to solve this great mistery. After almost a five seconds, she perked up and explained in a bright and cheery melodic voice(despite being rather deep) "OH MY GOODNESS I SWITCHED PLACES WITH A SUPERHERO!" She giggled and attempted to clop her hooves together only managing to poke her deformed hooves together. Suddenly the strange combination of gratification and awkwardness of being male was shoved to the back of her mind and replaced with the joy of switching conciousness with one of hthe most interesting and nicest individuals around town.

"I'm MISTER KESTREL! Um... Wait you ARE me right? Because what if more ponies are involved in this..." Two more individuals appeared in the room briefly taking Jasmine's attention. She raised her front paw and offered a bubbly wave. "HELLO! We're just having a crisis, or at least I might be. Is it ok if we stay here, we're not in trouble are we?"

Mona would just stare for a few moments, mouth slightly agape (Though the gun still secure) as she just tried to...take in what she was seeing. Which seemed to be a disturbingly giddy-looking Kestrel, a very pissed-looking pegasus, A familiar purple unicorn filly with very recognizable eyes cowering, and Bakewell lost in thought, behavior that she immediatly recognized as unusual for three out of the four she knew.

Mona attempted to holster her gun to talk better...only to remember who's body she was in, so after quickly reaching up and tucking the 10mm into her own bodies holster, she turned back to the group.

"Well, at least it dosn't look like me and Zes are the only ones with this current issue. So, mind if I ask who's who out of you all?"

Nothing fazes Kestrel,” Zestari agreed, “that’s true.” Zestari slowed and was more than happy for Mona to grab her firearm from its holster, allowing herself to look up at the horned protrusion and wondering how she might tap into the unicorn’s magic.

Giving a nod to the now armed unicorn and following her to the Community Centre doorway, prepared her unfamiliar hooves, just in case.

Together they entered the Community centre in a state of growing disbelief. She recognised all of the figures in the centre. Or at least she used to.

She was pretty sure she’d never seen an expression of glee on Kestrel’s face, or the enthusiastic friendly rumblings from his beak. By the same token, she’d never seen such a scowl or fierce demeanour in Jasmine’s face as she stood near the griffon. The odd behaviour pretty much revealed that the issue was more widespread than just Mona and herself.

Rising concern was again eaten, leaving her to somewhat solemnly look about the room, noticing Bakewell acting very strangely and Violet cowering across the room. How widespread was this?

If it were possible, Kestrel seemed to get a bit grimmer as Jasmine continued to defy his requests. She seemed to think all of this was awesome, considering she'd switched with a 'Superhero'. Hero; the word left a foul taste on Kestrels, new, tongue. He was no hero, heros didn't have the sort of sins he did. Hero's didn't have the issues he had. Hero's were good...heros were just. Kestrel...he was none of these things.

Kestrel was a monster. Well tamed, honed, and focused, but a monster all the same.

Turning around the griffon-turned-pegasus faced the newcomers. Great, more people he knew. Hopefully they'd be smart enough to NOT start laughing at the situation.

"Kethtrel, and I'm no hero." He answered the two before turning around and speaking to Jasmine; voice as cold as ever. "Your not me. We have thwitched bodith, not our identiteth." He said, voice dropping to below a whisper as he mumbled something more. "Noone detherveth that punithment."

Bakewell was glad that Jasmine no longer seemed likely to go on an insane psychotic rage, but remained pressed back against a far away corner, just in case.

“I haven’t messed with anything magical, unless Mr. Snuffles is secretly a wizard.” She replied, casting an unamused glance at Violet as she giggled in Bake’s body. Bakewell Fondant Tart did not giggle. She hadn’t since the stable, and the sound of her voice emitting the noise annoyed her.

As the unicorn calmed down, she managed to calm her vision down a tad as well. By the time Mona and Zestari had spoken, Bakewell had managed to identify them. For all of its weirdo quirks, Vi-Vision was pretty impressive and the filly had some pretty good ears on her head.

“You and Zestari are having body issues, too?” She asked in Violet’s higher pitched voice from across the room. “I guess it’s safe to guess that you’re each other, right? I’m Bakewell.”

Had Jasmine any pony been able to see her past her feathers, her could be seen splayed back at Kestrel's reaction. Her mood could be seen directly on her-er-his...Kestrel's expression could be seen on her old body plainly without the mask in the way. Jas understood that he was probably under stress from the body change, and tried her best to brush off the negative reaction. "Don't you worry mister Kestrel! I'll try my best to keep calm. Besides, you're here to protect us all so I know we're safe!" Jasmine nodded her head to emphasize her statement. Suddenly sher stopped nodding and opened her beak slightly. "Safe... somthing... Starry sells megaspells by the stable's cellar-" Jasmine's eyes brightened up as she slowly turned her head toward everypony in the room. Her deep powerful voice exclaimed in glee... "Oh my goodness...I don't have a lisp!" She turned her attention back to Kes. "Is that REALLY what I sound like?! Wow, we better find a way to get you out of there..."

Jas' eyes almost instinctively shifted over to the tiny filly back against the wall. Her head followed as her brain caused her body to follow her gaze. She managed to stop herself, and her urge to addess the tiny movement. The feeling as foriegn and strange to Jasmine, still overwhelmed by Kestrel's fine senses. She looked at the cautious young filly and her heart sank. "Aww, Violy what's wrong?!" Motivated by her motherly side Jasmine galloped over to Bakewell in Violets body hoping to calm her down. However good her intentions were, Jas was largely ignorant to just how powerful and scary may come across. "It's ok! Nothing to be afraid of!"

Last edited by Jasmine Beat on Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:14 pm; edited 1 time in total

Kestrel normally would have let Jasmine do as she pleased. But apparently she didn't realize that she was walking around in a body that both dwarfed and struck fear in the hearts of most pony's by instinct.

Add in the fact that that body had a reputation for killing everything and its way and the prospect of a hug from it was most likely NOT what Bake-let needed.

"Jathmine. Thtop." Kestrel lisped over at her raising a hoof as if to stop her.

Jasmine stopped immediately at Kestrels command. She turned around and walked slowly back toward his side. She respected Kestrel greatly as much as anypony else, personal space and regulating your temperment were things that Jas needed a bit more work on. Also it probably wasn't easy for him to see somepony else prance around in his own body. "Sorry Kestrel... I... Did I do somthing wrong?"

Violet was broken out of her thoughts by a new voice, a familiar one. She looked up and saw a two new arrivals at the door, Zestari and Mona Tones. She wasn’t all too familiar with Zestari either, but she at least knew her, and she never forgot a face (Or a voice for that matter, although in this case the voice was a bit off).

Violet’s own thoughts mirrored Mona Tones She couldn’t help but wonder if any others were...’Displaced’ like they were. It wasn’t widespread enough that she noticed anypony else acting oddly on the way here, at anyrate.

She would also question how it seemed that she knew everypony, with one exception, that had been effected so far. However that’s usually how these things went, so she wasn’t as inclined to question that.

“My name’s Violet Star, and yeah, Bakewell’s in my body. And I remember you two, Zestari and Mona Tones." she indicated both the mares with a hoof as she said their names.

While she observed the two, she noticed something...Odd, about Zestari, the actual mare, not Mona in the zebra's body. Her posture, her facial expression, her body language...It looked...Flat. She was acting like Mona, not herself. And if the two really were switched, wouldn't it be the other way around? And Mona in Zestari's body, while not as emotive as the zebra usually was, was still showing much more emotion then she saw previously...She would have to figure out the reason for all that later.

After she got her answer the filly-turned-mare noticed Jasmine walking up Bakewell, who she just now realized was cowering, in an attempt to comfort her...Not realizing that, in Kestrel’s body, she’d probably be doing the exact opposite...

“Uh, Jasmine? I don’t think that’s a go-”

But Kestrel nipped that in the bud before it got worse, stopping Jasmine from freaking out Bakewell even more. While Kestrel was dealing with his...alternate, Violet slowly trotted over to her now-minimized friend.

“Uh, hey, Bakewell?” she asked as she approached, a smile on her face, a comforting one. “Are you ok? You kind of seem to be...Cowering, a bit...Which usually does not mean good things in my experience. Well, unless it’s a slaver, if they’re cowering that means they aren’t shooting at me...” she muttered.

So pretty much everypony’s identity was now clear, but Zestari couldn’t see a pattern to why the six of them had been targeted. Did they have a common enemy, perhaps?

With the hijinks between Kestrel and Jasmine, Zestari knew she wanted to laugh at how Jasmine was handling the new body, but couldn’t seem to find a way to do more than smile softly.

“Hello Violet, I’m Zestari in Mona’s body, but that was probably already clear.” She responded as Violet in Bakewell’s body left and went over to Bakewell in Violet’s body. At this point she noted that each swapped pony seemed to pair up with the other. Was it concern for their own body? Was it to comfort the other in the moment of duress? She was happy to sit there and simply ponder things, it was much better than shredding her sanity on the emotional fog she otherwise was subjected to. Perhaps this is why Mona is a mare of few words.

Elevating her voice slightly to try and get everypony’s attention, she spoke. “Does anyone know what happened?”

Bakewell raised her hoof to stop Jasmine, scared of a backbreaking hug. Before she could say anything, however, Kestrel stopped griffon.

…and basically told her, the resident party mare who had possibly out partied even Starry Night, that she could not party or sing or do anything she loved any longer. ‘Great, good job Kestrel.’ Bakewell groaned mentally ‘Let’s just upset the mare in the gigantic griffon body that’s now dangerously close to me, a little filly. Thanks! Just what I wanted! Happy Hearths Warming!’

When Violet approached, Bakewell attempted to nonchalantly wander around to the opposite side of her old body.

“I’ll be fine.” She muttered, hopefully sounding more convincing than she felt. “It’s just... everything is so large and weird.” The filly muttered as she grabbed a chair and began dragging it towards Violet. “And you’re not exactly as strong as I’m used to, no offense. I feel like an open target. If a raider were to bust through that door right now, I think my options would be to either hide or die, and I’m not good at hiding.”

The purple filly paused for a second, staring from the now moved chair to her old body and back before scrabbling onto the chair and leaping off of it onto Violet’s beige back. She struggled for a moment to find grip, but Violet’s body was pretty agile. Before long she was peaking over the mare’s white mane.

“This is slightly better.” She sighed. “Slightly. Mostly because now I can kick you every time you giggle.”

Upon hearing Mona, or actually it was Zestari, right? Strange. She wasn’t acting very Zestari-like, ask if anypony knew what had happened, Bakewell resorted to simply shaking her head no. She didn’t even know how to begin attempting to explain this. Not unless Mr. Snuffles really was some kind of arcane magic user, which was impossible.

Violet listened to Bakewell as she explained her worries. “Oh, that’s your problem? You just need to think with a different mindset if, you know, magical raiders appear in Stableton and start attacking ponies. You, well, you used to be, a big tanky pony. Lots of muscles and tough skin. You could basically take whatever ponies threw at you and throw it all back by beating them with your hooves. When it comes to me though, and you now technically, I’m a really fast pony, and a hard target. You have to focus on dodging and avoiding a blows, before stabbing them where it hurts! Usually in their heels, their spine, throat, eyes, or, if its a guy, between the legs, although that usually just disables them rather them outright kill them.” Violet explained to Bakewell before pointing towards the knife in her body’s holster. “Knifes can be great equalizers when you’re not very strong.”

She watched Bakewell climbed up onto the chair. Being a smart pony, she was able to quickly guess what was to come, and braced herself before she felt a little filly land and grab onto her back before struggling to climb up. Violet once again was glad that Bakewell wasn’t particularly clumsy, and she had little to no trouble balancing the filly on her back.

“Giggling?” she questioned when Bakewell made her intention to kick Violet whenever she giggled clear. “You don’t like it when ponies giggle? I never noticed that before, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen ponies giggle around you before without you looking uncomfortable or anything like that...I’m pretty sure I giggled around before without you looking like it affected you...Wait...That’s not it...You don’t like the sound of your own voice giggling, is that it?”

Often times Jasmine misinterpreted Kestrel's social queues due to the mask over his face. In this instance, his hardened gaze was staring straight back at her clear as day. Nope, this was no joke; he was completely serious. Her eyes widened as her mouth hung open, unable to utter a single word. Not able to sing or skip!? If she wasn't able to dance that would make this unbearable to her.

"I'm not allowed to dance or sing?! But... But why!? I'm just so lovable and happy. Kes..." Jasmine bowed her head slightly as she kept eye contact with him. "And I'm not really sure being fearful is really my forte. I don't even know where to start..."

Jasmine gently scratched the floor with her talon as she drew an imaginary picture. Suddenly she perked up and had to stop herself from practically jumping on Kestrel. 'OH MY GOODNESS! Ok, granted I'm probably not exactly the best griffin ever... But what if you taught me how to be! That is if we can't get ourselves switched back. It might be kind of awkward identifying myself as a mare stuck in a griffin's body..." Suddenly she gasped and turned to him and spoke in a pitch as high as Kes' voice would allow. "And what if I got to teach you about the joys of mare-hood!? Oh! I can teach you how to be a beautiful young lady Kestrel!" Jasmine awkwardly fixed her hair on her old body. "You're going to have fun flying around and wearing makeup and..." Jasmine suddenly shut her beak, ducking slightly as a certain thought crossed her mind. "Actually we might want to try to get you switched as soon as possible...um..."

Kestrel visably frowned as Jasmine trailed off...there was something she wasn't telling him. He rather disliked that considering the current situation. What was going to happen? Was he going to have something happen soon? Doctors appointment? Party hosting experience?

Was she going into heat or something?

Whatever it was Kestrel passed it off for now and decided to capitalize on the OTHER part of all of this. The offer to 'teach' her to be a griffon. In all reality Kestrel saw no way to do this...you just didn't teach a pony to be something it wasn't. Nature did not work that way.

But that could be overlooked.

The way Kestrel saw it. If he 'trained' Jasmine, he could keep an eye on her, make sure she didn't start something or go about destroying his reputation with possible employers. "Firtht off. I dont wanth to be a mare. The idea ith dithpleathing. Ith it keepth you from cauthing this whole thenairo to get out of hand however I thuppose I can teath you THOME of the wayth of my thpecieth."

Jasmine clopped her deformed hooves together and clasped them together, bringing them to her neck as she looked down at Kestrel. After withdrawing her breath she giggled and slammed down onto her alien-looking fore hooves. "Don't you worry Kestrel! I wont let you down! Not only will I help you get you into your rightful body...In time- I'm going to be the best griffin ever. No pony will even know the difference!"

She did a little jig while sitting on her flank, pointing her talons straight up into the sky with her arms at her sides, shifting left and right. "I'm so happy, I get to be trained by Kestrel! DAW!" Jasmine puffed her chest out while taking in a deep and calming breath, snapping her birdy muzzle shut. Her eyes looked down on the pegasus as she tried to convey an assertive look.

"So... My pegasister... Sorry- 'teacher'!" Jasmine groaned shaking her head, cheeks flushing slightly under the mask. "Is there anything I need to keep in mind before we hit the streets? Because I kind of wanted to say hi to Zestari and her friend... Perhaps they may have some clue as to what happened to us?"

Zestari had managed to determine that through the fog, one edge of emotion could and had wormed its way through the fog, and she facehoofed at Jasmine and Kestrel. Still, Jasmine did have one good point. Zestari fortunately hadn’t gained any extra male appendages to make things even more uncomfortable and awkward.

Turning towards the most un-Kestrel like griffon Zestari could imagine, she spoke softly, “Jasmine, we have no idea what happened, why we were targeted, by whom we were targeted or by what means.” She sighed. “It would seem to be more of a prank than malicious in action, I’d have thought, but we’re going to have to snoop about Stableton in search of answers. Unless anypony else has a better suggestion.”

Inside Zestari was feeling a little miserable. Her explanation felt… flat, she would normally try and be dramatic, or wave her hooves around to exaggerate her point. This head, though… She mentally sighed.

Bakewell attempted to sidestep Violet’s accusation by focusing instead on other matters. Jasmine and Kestrel seemed to be hitting it off… well wasn’t quite the right word. Decently? Peacefully? Better than it could have been? The two could probably take care of each other, for now.

Zestari and Mona Tones, on the other hand, seemed strange. They had apparently switched as well, and while Bakewell could make out little differences in personality here and there, Mona- that is, the mare in Zestari’s body- didn’t seem to be talking in her standard, emotionless way. The general single tone seemed to keep with the body. How was that possible? Was it due to a mutation of some sort, like Violet’s taint-vision? Bakewell had almost always assumed that Mona spoke like she did because the slender unicorn felt as though she needed to for some reason or another, The purple filly hadn’t considered that the voice was because Mona absolutely did need to on a more physical scale and was incapable of not doing so.

Zestari was a friendly and bubbly zebra with an array of emotions that she used quite often. If Bakewell had been scared of sudden organ-vision, just imagine how the zebra felt about her voice. And that's assuming that whatever caused the voice didn't cause other things as well.

“Zesmona needs hugs, and then we need to find out how to fix this.” Bakewell whispered into Violet’s ear, before bringing her two rear hooves down firmly into the mare’s hardened beige sides. “Mush, noble steed. You need to work off the breakfast I ate this morning anyway.”

Mona would have been quiet for a while, as she simply listened to the current conversations. However, she couldn't help but glance at Zestari every now and then, hoping she was doing okay. She didn't have to lifetime of experience Mona had had with her body, and for such an emotional zebra to now be unable to express herself? She couldn't imagine what it would be like for her in there.

Silently, she reached up with a hoof and gave Zes a comforting pat on the back, before turning to the others.

"I'm afraid we're in the dark as well, but I have to say, looking at all of us, it seems like a prank is probably the best explanation. I mean, swapping Kestrel with this extremely excitable pegasus, Zestari and me, and Bakewell and Violet all strike me as...well...probably having the most 'humour' potential if you look at certain obvious traits...not that I'm really an expert on such matters...

However, if this was a prank...then I'm really curious as to HOW? I don't know about your circumstances, but me and Zestari were a heavy distance away from the community center before we heard kestrel...or I guess more accurately, this Pegasus, scream. I have to say, that's making me think there's either multiple pranksters if this was some form of unicorn magic...or it's something very different. either way, we should probably confirm where we all were before we changed, so that we can at least get an idea for where to investigate first. Does that make sense to everybody?"

With that extremely lenghty dialogue out of the way from Mona, she went right back to listening as she waited for a responce. That was probably the most words the Unicorn had ever said at once, and it wasn't even her own body.

Violet glanced up at the filly on her back as she was silent, avoiding the question before attempting to steer the conversation away towards the two new arrivals, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh-huh. Don’t think I didn’t notice that you didn’t answer.” noted Violet. She would need to question Bakewell later, once she had a chance. She had a feeling that there was more to this then Bakewell just not liking the sound of her own giggling...Otherwise she would've said as much instead of avoiding the question. But she decided to comply with her body-swapped friend for now.

Suddenly moving, the mare galloped towards Zestari and Mona, skidding to a stop just in front of the unicorn containing a zebra. Just as suddenly, while also displaying Violet’s keen awareness of the concept of ‘personal space’, she wrapped her forlegs around the unicorn and pulled her into a hug, that she held for several seconds despite any protests before letting go.

“I was told you needed hugs.” explained Violet before pulling Bakewell, who most likely just barely kept her balance on her back during the gallop, off of her back and pushing her towards Zestari. “Your turn Bakewell!” she said with a wide grin on her face.

While Bakewell administered her own hugs, Violet’s ears perked as Mona gave her insights on the situation. “You two are probably right about this being some sort of weird and complicated prank, considering who’s been swapped.” she glanced at Jasmine and Kestrel. “It does seem to be set up with the funniest swaps in mind.”

“And, well I don’t really know about any spells that could do this, and if there is I’d imagine it’d be pretty hard for a unicorn to acquire the spellbooks for that. Although I don’t really know anything else that could do this either...” she added. “And it’s probably not necessarily focused here in particular either. Especially since neither of you two were even near here, and even with the four of us only me and Kestrel were here when the...Er, ‘swap’ happened. And even then I think that was mostly a coincidence, and a poorly, or depending on how you look at it well, timed one considering how we found Jasmine when me and Kestrel got back here after getting swapped...By the way, I wouldn’t go anywhere further into the community center anytime soon...I have some traps to disable later...”